GB-3 OF NEWSPAPER AND POSITIVITY

BY MINI SHIVAKUMAR MENON, language and youth leadership trainer

Newspapers figure somewhere at the bottom end of my list of chosen reading material. I’m not proud to admit it, but then, it’s the truth. I usually read anything I can lay my hands on, but it’s with great reluctance that I browse through a newspaper. Too much reality in there for me…

Last month, we were on vacation in India. I happened to pick up one of the more popular vernacular newspapers lying on the coffee table, purely because there was nothing else to read. The front page proudly presented one high-level conspiracy/corruption at the Centre, a local rape and murder, a gruesome accident and an ominous prediction about the effects of climate change. 

The second page carried child abuse, flanked by the news of a much-married mother eloping with a younger neighbors  and an unidentified body on the railway tracks, with a small column on a two-headed chicken that hatched in a farm thrown in at the bottom corner. I don’t even want to talk about the obit page here. If there were any positive bits, they were lost in the darkness that was emanating from the rest of the newspaper. At this point, I felt a desperate need to put as much distance between me and the newspaper, so I got up and went to take a good, long look at the rising sun. I needed all the light I could get.

credits- MANYA AHUJA

To the average citizen, newspapers are still the first event of the day. I imagined an entire state waking up to its daily morning fix of corruption, murder, rape, abuse, death, fear and mayhem. What a way to start the day! This is what Citizen X – including children and young adults – carries with him/her through the day. Is it any wonder that our crime rates are increasing? Is it any wonder that our children are growing up world-weary and cynical? The mass media, whether it is newspaper or television, gives so much coverage to all things negative that there’s no more room for the positive in the real world. Not even in the unreal world, as most of the television series that are being aired seem to tell us in no uncertain terms. What are we teaching our kids?

Why aren’t we telling them that ‘yes, there is all this in the world, but there is also something else’? Why aren’t we telling them more about the Abdul Kalams of this world who refuse to compromise on their principles? Why aren’t we taking the time to tell them about the Sunita Krishnans of the world who turned their tragedy around to help victims of rape and abuse? Let’s encourage them to contribute their efforts to Greenpeace instead of scaring them with a dark future. Let’s teach them the value of human life over that of passing the medical entrance test. Let’s make them understand the real meaning of duality – that for every bad, there is a good; for every night, there’s a day; for every problem, there is a solution. That their glass, which everyone tells them is already half-empty, is actually half-full yet, and if they want to, they can still make it full.

credits- MANYA AHUJA

My friend Jithu begins and ends his day by going through at a Powerpoint presentation he has made for himself. In there are his prayers, dreams and aspirations, along with some motivational quotes and calming pictures. He says it gives him a great start and end to the day. I have to believe him because he is one of the most positive and happy people I have come across.

 From being a typical hypertension-cholesterol-obesity-ridden executive, he has evolved into a happy and healthy entrepreneur who deals in gems and jewelry, his long-time dream. His positivity has obviously percolated down to his wife and daughter as well. They look at life with their torch shining, and everyone around is benefitted. I learned a lot from that family in the few hours I spent with them. Mainly that it is possible to choose happiness, goodness and serenity over everything else.

credits- MANYA AHUJA

 Newspapers and television glorify ‘badness’ because we accept it unquestioningly. They claim that there are fewer takers for happiness and positivity. If that is true, then it is incredibly sad. Have we become so used to darkness and negativity that we cannot accept anything better? What will happen if, one day, we hold a morcha against sensational journalism and ‘yellow’ writing? How would it be if we go on a hunger strike against all those ‘saas-bahu’ (and other) TV serials that insult collective human intelligence? Maybe then the media moguls will stop dishing it out to us and we can start our day the way Jithu does!